As you say some go private, home educate, move out of the area or win appeals. But one child, A, freeing up a space by moving away for example can release five or six places as the child who gets the newly freed up space, B, then doesn't need the place they had, so child C gets B's original space, thus freeing up their originally allocated space for child D etc etc.

As titchy says - it only takes a few children to go private or move out of area to have a really big impact on the waiting lists. One person going private creates a vacancy for someone who holds a place at a different school. That person gives up their original allocation to accept this new offer and in doing so creates a vacancy for someone else to accept who then gives up their current offer so on and so.

The key part is that nobody is allowed to hold two offers so if you get a waiting list offer you are forced to decide very quickly whether to accept it or not. As soon as you accept it you create a vacancy at your originally allocated school for someone else to fill. If you don't accept it, it gets offered to the next person on the list.

Thanks tiggytape. How long would you normally get to decide? What happens if someone turns down their new offer? Person with School C gets offered B which means person with school D gets offered C etc. But what if person with school B offer doesn't want it. That place that they should have freed up doesn't exist. Sorry not making myself clear.

Trying to work out if we should start on our appeal or hold off for another week. We are 5th currently on w/l.

A matter of days - not long at all. The council would expect you to either accept or decline the waiting list place almost as soon as the offer is made. It is essential to the process and to the poor people waiting further down all the lists.

If person A at number 1 on the list gets a waiting list offer but declines it then that newly created place isn't wasted. The council offer it to the person at number 2 on the waiting list.If the person at number 2 says "no thank you, we'll stick to our original allocation" then the place is offered to the person 3rd on the waiting list and so on until someone accepts it.

That's why people who were at number 70 on a list and despairing can find they get lucky afterall with lots of people above them on the list deciding not to take an offer when it is finally made.

You have good reason to be hopeful about the list. Number 5 is a good position to be in but you could find you go down the list as well as up (if people move into the area and ask to be added to it, they go above you if they meet the admission criteria better) and nothing is ever certain with how many people will decline. If an appeal is an option, you want to make sure you don't miss the deadline which isn't far away because being having a late appeal puts you at a disadvantage (some people will have possibly won appeals before yours is even heard if you are late with the form)

You normally have a deadline to get your appeal heard in the first round. I would register for the appeal, but you don't actually have to start preparing straight away and you can withdraw your appeal at any point.

You normally get 1 to 2 weeks to accept a waiting list place, and can certainly ask for time to consider.

Zingy - you can reserve your spot so to speak by just submitting the appeal form with a basic outline of your case and then, if the waiting list doesn't move much or if you move further down it, you can then submit more evidence for the appeal nearer the date of the hearing. Hopefully by that stage you will have an offer and won't need the appeal at all.

Yes.Under reasons for appeal you could write "School A's curriculum and extracurricular activities meet my child's interests and learning needs" and then if it turns out you have to go to appeal then you could write in more detail about the music opportunities the school has and why your DD would benefit from these and how being able to study Greek at GCSE is important to her.You don't have to spend hours on an appeal now - you can just mark your place and then withdraw if you get a waiting list offer before summer.